Even a little MLB pension check can mean a lot

Ex-big leaguers from pre-1980 who didn't have 4 years of service time finally get their's

November 28, 2011|Phil Rogers | On Baseball

Tom Lundstedt was a first-round draft pick of the Cubs in 1970. Like most big leaguers, he did not leave large footprints in the baseball landscape.

"My last year was 1975," Lundstedt said. "My miracle was I hit .100 (actually .092) and managed to get into parts of three seasons in the major leagues."

Another blessed event happened for Lundstedt earlier this year.

A check arrived at his home in Door County, Wis. It was his first pension payment from Major League Baseball.

"Baseball was just a chapter in my life, and I had moved a long way away from it," said Lundstedt, a Prospect High graduate who played 44 games as a backup catcher for the Cubs and Twins. "This process brought it back into my life. It was just neat to get a check that was signed by the commissioner of baseball and had the baseball logo on it. Really neat."

Lundstedt remained in Minneapolis after baseball. He worked as a broker in commercial real estate and has established a thriving business as a speaker specializing in investment and tax advice. He was in solid financial shape before MLB and the players union closed the last remaining loophole in their pension system, including players from pre-1980 who did not have the four years of service time then needed for a pension.

According to Douglas Gladstone, author of the book "A Bitter Cup of Coffee," there are 864 former players currently receiving checks from the pre-1980 deal announced last April. They originally were awarded pensions for only two years but that coverage was extended through 2016 as a provision of the collective bargaining agreement announced last week.

Everyone involved considers this good news. The bad news is that the deal didn't go far enough for a $7 billion industry, and that becomes even clearer given terms of the new CBA, which will take the minimum salary of an entry-level player to $500,000.

This is a marked difference from the conditions when Lundstedt played, in the era when the players' union was gaining the strength that has led to baseball's prosperous era of labor peace.

"My first year in Minnesota, the minimum salary was $15,000," Lundstedt said. "The next year it went to $16,000. I went in to (Twins owner) Calvin Griffith and said I want to get $16,500. He said no, and I said why not? 'You're no damn good,'" he said.

Because Lundstedt has thrived in business, he can laugh about the change in baseball finances. But Gladstone knows a lot of former players experiencing real financial hardship — including the foreclosure of homes — who have gotten little help from their new pensions. He believes MLB and the union haven't done enough to help.

Carmen Fanzone, who once played the national anthem on his trumpet before a game at Wrigley Field, works as an entertainment agent in Los Angeles. He served as a utility man for the Cubs, joining the team in September 1971 and spending the next three seasons in Chicago. He was released after '74 and ended his playing career 85 days short of the four years needed to become vested in the pension plan.

"I've always thought we should have gotten something," Fanzone said. "I said, 'I don't care what it is — it could be two margaritas a year — it's better than nothing.' … But I thought my three years should count. It should probably count the same as somebody else's three years in the 1980s or the 1990s."

Michael Weiner, executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association, understands that viewpoint. But labor law does not require corporations to bargain for the benefits of former employees, leaving him with little leverage if he did want to make it a bigger issue, and he says current players shifted about $50 million from current to former players in payments, including both those previously covered and the pre-1980, non-vested guys.

"There's always more you can do, that can be done," Weiner said. "I'm proud of the commitment that the active players have made to those who came before them."

The terms agreed to by the union and MLB before the April announcement, only guaranteed through 2012, were continued through '16 under the new CBA. They provide $625 per quarter year of service, up to a maximum of 16 quarters. Someone like Fanzone would receive a gross payment of $8,700 annually, or about $7,100 after taxes. The agreement did not extend medical or survivor's benefits for those it covered.

Gladstone, a champion for this group that was overlooked while MLB was covering surviving Negro leaguers, agrees. He says if closely examined, the payoff to pre-1980 non-vested players is "a sham."

"I'm glad that these men will be getting something for the next five years," Gladstone said, "but it still is anathema to me why neither the league nor the union want to do right by them and retroactively restore them all into pension coverage."